Recaps: Cavs 117, Nuggets 109 (or, CLE is the greatest team in the world!!)

Remember that five wins in six games stretch in late November and early December? The Cavs beat the Nuggets by double-digits then, in one of the best games of Cleveland’s season. Those two weeks were fun, and included a win over the Clippers, too. Everything else this season? Not much fun, including zero wins against teams with records better than five-hundred. While maybe over dramatic, tonight’s game defines the difference between this West Coast trip being a success, or a bit of a disaster. With a victory, the Wine & Gold emerge from their longest road trip of the season with three wins and two losses, a very nice result on any West Coast trip. Fans can revel in the exciting addition of Luol Deng, and what it means for the season’s second half. With a loss though, the trip features a double-digit, negative per game point differential, and another frustrating move towards 30 or fewer wins. With the season reaching the halfway point Monday against Dallas, there will be relatively little to be optimistic about. It is pretty stark how different the “narrative” of this road trip and season could be, depending on win or lose tonight.

So, what happened?

The first quarter started well enough. Tristan scored nine points in the first six minutes, as the score stayed tight early: 14 to 13 with five minutes to go in the first. Unfortunately, Randy Foye just wouldn’t miss. Making 54% of his threes over the previous seven games, Foye canned three more in the first quarter, good towards 11 points, staking Denver to a 21 to 15 lead at the max. The second unit fought valiantly though, and the quarter ended with the Cavs trailing 29 to 26. Tristan finished with 9 points, and Andy with 6 rebounds.

The second quarter began with the Cavs blazing. At one point, Jarrett Jack scored seven points as part of a nine to nothing Cleveland run. The Wine & Gold lead 35 to 31 with eight minutes left. All three of Jack’s buckets were in the paint, which is a very nice development that hopefully continue. As soon as I began basking in that glory though, Nate Robinson spurred a seven to nothing Nuggets run. But then, things got crazy. Cleveland scored 33 points in the final 7.5 minutes of the quarter. Dion scored six straight, including one ferocious slam. Then, Kyrie scored ten in a minute and a half, featuring one abracadabra drive for a lay-in. With three minutes left in the quarter, the Cavs lead 58 to 46. Tristan made a couple of buckets, then Dion and CJ each hit threes, and voila, 10 more points in a little over a minutes! 68 to 57 at the half. That was some of the most breakneck, ridiculous seven minutes of basketball I have seen the Cavs, or any other team play. For those seven minutes, they scored 211 points per 48. The Wine & Gold finished the half shooting 57 / 46 / 79, as Tristan, Kyrie and CJ scored 13 each, with Dion and Jack pitching in nine a piece. Combining the torrid shooting with three turnovers, it was one hell of a half.

The third quarter started slightly saner, maybe even a bit of a hangover after the drunken exuberance of the third quarter, but the Cavs maintained a solid lead. The margin was double digits most of the quarter, until Denver pulled within seven towards the end. Cleveland lead 87 to 80 going into the fourth. Luol Deng scored ten and Tristan six for the quarter.

The fourth quarter continued slowly, like the third, an extended withdrawal from the madness of the late portions of the first half. Cleveland scored 11 points in the first six-plus minutes of the final frame, but fortunately Denver only matched. The Cavs’ offense stagnated, as Denver drew within four at 101 to 97…

I start to sweat, before Varejao finds a cutting Deng for a layup, grabs an offensive board, and then hits Tristan on a nice pass, getting Thompson to the line. Thank goodness for you, Andy. Next, of course, Nate Robinson promptly hits a three, before Varejao throws a lazy inbounds pass for a Nate Rob gimme. I vomit a little. 105 to 102 Cavs. 3:25 left.

Andy redeems himself with another sweet dime to Kyrie. That’s three extremely crucial passes in crunch time from Varejao. 109 to 102 Cavs. The stupid Nuggets won’t go away though. Wilson Chandler cans two from deep, while the Cavs start shooting long two-pointers…but on one, the ball is loose on the floor…Luol Deng slams it home. 113 to 108 Cleveland!! 44 seconds to go!! From there, the rest is easy. Cleveland wins 117 to 109! The season is saved!! Three wins on the longest West coast trip of the season!!!

Ok, it may not be that easy, but coming out of this swing with three wins is a really nice outcome. Here’s to wishing a Luol Deng infused second half leads to many more victories and the type of season that most envisioned. Just like the other stretch of winning basketball from this season, hope appears to be on the horizon. Fingers crossed…

A few bullets…

That stretch in the second quarter was crazy. I couldn’t keep up. Everyone was scoring from everywhere all the time. I do not know the NBA’s 25th ranked offense had that capability.

Tristan made his first eight shots. Short jumpers, driving hooks, catch and finishes, it was an offensive explosion from TT. He finished with 20 points on 8-9 shooting, with 10 rebounds and two blocks. Seeing Thompson swat a few shots may have been as exciting as anything.

Andy finished with seven points, 16 boards, seven assists, three steals and a block while leading the team in plus/minus. It was exactly the type of game you would expect from that stat line. A perfect Andy game, if you will. How many other guys in the NBA can but up those numbers? Send that man to the All-Star game. The Eastern Conference stinks anyways, right?

Kyrie scored 23 points, to go with six assists, four rebounds and one turnover. It was a fairly understated 23 points. Tristan and Andy were the “stars” tonight.

C.J. Miles scored 14 on 6-12 shooting, and like Andy, finished +14. He has really been a plus/minus all-star for the team this year.

Luol Deng scored 18 points on 6-17 shooting. It wasn’t his greatest game. He scored a lot in the third though, when the offense otherwise bogged down, and put in a pivotal bucket off an Andy dime late.

Rough first eight minutes for Dion. Got destroyed by Kenneth Faried on a fast break, and also bobbled a different fast break opportunity. He threw a couple of bad passes and generally looked unengaged early. Then, that turned around and he scored nine points with two steals over the next nine minutes. But of course next, the second half sucked. 0-4 with no free throws. He didn’t get to finish the game on the court, and shot 3-14 for the game, for nine points. I want to feel better about Dion than I do.

Kyrie goes out with about 4 minutes left in the half. Which should be a nice rest but Mike Brown keeps him out until the game ot tight and enough of the 4th has expired that he’s going to be ice cold when he cones back in. Hate that coaching decision.

Meh. Aaron. It’s Denver. Too easy to get guys gassed in that altitude. Outside of throwing away three straight possessions at the end of the third because of exhaustion, I thought Mike Brown managed the minutes pretty well.

This game wouldn’t have been in doubt for as long as it was if Tristan Thompson could close out shooters. They’ve really got to work with TT on guarding stretch 4s behind the line in late game situations, because this isn’t the first time teams have burned TT. The threes he gave up to Chandler were game losing plays. Thank goodness they didn’t come back to haunt Cleveland.

Dion was kind of a mess offensively, but his defense was pretty solid. The difference between he and Jack on the ball was palpable.

Loved the game from Andy and Kyrie tonight. Kyrie making the hockey pass to Andy, and Andy hitting cutters in the high post at the end of the game was beautiful. That bounce pass he had to Deng for the dunk was a pass only 5 centers in the league can make. Andy’s the most underrated player in the league.

Zeller has been finding the holes in the defense really well of late. His pace and timing on pick and rolls has improved drastically. In the event that Andy is no longer on the team next season, it’s crucial that Zeller can be a 20 minute or more a night player at a minimum.

The team is 4-2 since the Deng trade and they won more games on the road this trip than they have all season. It’s amazing how much better the off the ball movement is team wide since his addition. Andy and Deng’s ability to play off one another so soon is really encouraging. The next five games (Mavs, Bulls, Bucks, Suns, Pelicans) are all at home and are all winnable games. Dallas is a mediocre 10-11 on the road this year and it’s an early game (1pm). TT and Andy should destroy them on the glass. Can’t wait.

Kevin, this was perhaps Dion’s worst game in quite a while. Also, you should stop saying you didn’t feel good about him esp since your own numbers tell you he is doing well…besides his D was pretty damn good and his without a doubt, the best close-out guy we have on 3-point shooters…

Then, despite what your numbers say, you rate Zeller. Huh? He was impressive for about 2 total minutes tonight. Nice dunk. Couple of decent O boards. The rest of time he was eaten alive by Timmy Mozgov. Gave up position every possession. Made me almost as frustrated as Kyrie’s gawd awful D tonight (seriously? You don’t mention his swinging gate defense tonight at all?). If we had an AVERAGE defensive PG, we win this game going away.

Even though Jack shot well, I LOATHE the way the team “runs” with him a PG. If Dion is in the game, he is the PG and either Jack or Kyrie play off him. I know this is unlikely to happen but that is the absolutely best way for the Cavs to play ball.

TT eats Faried alive. Again. Anyone who wants him over TT is looney. Andy is an All-Star.

the difference in offensive play with deng on the team reveals just how bad gee and clark are at basketball. i mean, we haven’t seen a legit NBA small forward since 23 left. deng is a revelation. he is the odd combination of a “glue guy” wtih elite offensive skills. new level of appreciation for him.

Deng has kept preaching to these guys over and over that it isn’t going to be your night always but it will be for someone else on the team. You have to support each other and not pout about it. You can’t let your slump of shots not falling affect your defense. He’s just what the doctor ordered for this very young team. Did you get to hear his interview on Varejao and Noah? He said Andy was a lot smarter than he thought ? LoL Very funny stuff. He said Noah wouldn’t like him comparing. You could hear Andy laughing in the background.

@KJ Zeller defending another 7footer and having two good minutes is two more minutes than he would have had last season.

What the hell was up with the rotation tonight, looked like a damn playoff box score. Unfortunately I was driving down to Marietta while the game was going on so I didn’t get to see the win. I’m really kind of pissed about that. But unlike last season I don’t have to worry if it will be the only W for a like 15 games so I guess I can’t be too upset.

– I can’t believe I’m saying this….but kudos to Mike Brown. Last night’s leader in minutes played was none other than CJ Miles, and Jack’s minutes were reduced to 15. If this was a normal night, and you swap their minutes- as well as their +/- (CJ +14; JJ -1)- then the Cavs lose. Is Brown finally learning who gives him the best chance to win? We’ll see.

– There was a moment in the second quarter that almost brought me to tears. Dion posts up, and bulls his way for an easy two on a nice move (one of his few of the night). The next time down the court, Kyrie brings it up, and Dion asks for the ball in his customary place, across the court 40 feet from the basket. Kyrie waves him off. Dion scowls, and asks again. I start to mutter “uh oh, here we go again”. Kyrie then starts frantically waving at the basket. Waiters curls under it, posts up on Kyrie’s side, and Kyrie happily delivers the ball. Granted, he posted up way too far out, and promptly turns around and jacks up an 18 footer….but when I see things like that, it makes me start thinking that Waiters is more the problem than Kyrie.

– Deng’s best contributions last night won’t show up in the box score. When the Nuggets made runs in the second half, Deng would demand the ball, slow things down, and direct the team. THAT’S why you need a veteran presence on the team. That’s why it might be worth signing him long term.

Yeah Dion is not the best at closing out. To be honest none of our “core 3″ are good at it because although they have seemingly improved at iso-defence (particularly Kyrie) their off ball defence is appalling (particularly Kyrie). Fortunately most young players improve this aspect of their game last so hopefully we continue seeing improvement as the season goes on. The way our offence is playing I fancy us to win whenever we hold the opposition under 100. Very happy with what I’m seeing from Zeller so far. He was definitely not ready to start a season of games last year but it seems to have really helped him grow because he is playing very well from the bench.

I am so glad we are not tanking for yet another unknown. The most important thing is for our squad to learn to win together, compete for one another and know that losing is no longer acceptable. The addition of Deng combined with Andy should be able to lead them in this regard. I have agreed with everything Deng has been quoted as saying to his new teammates and think we should try and lock him up as soon as possible.

A couple of weeks ago one of you made an impassioned rant about the team needing leadership more than anything else. You listed a few players that would fit the bill. I don’t know if Deng was one of them . . . but nice call.

Winning is a lot more fun than losing. Getting beat in the first round of the playoffs is better than tanking (especially if you are somebody that watches games). Winning becomes contagious. Everybody synergistically gets better. Losing leads to deterioration of competitive drive and skill level. Tanking is a process that may lead to getting one good player, while at the same time magically turns your existing players into useless commodities. That’s why, for every OKC story there are numerous failures. It’s akin to a law of math or physics.

If the team continues to mature as they recently have – just think what we’d have if Bennett had come in and brought instant “inside/outside/match up problem” offense and physicality off the bench when Tristan sat?

Alas . . . time to send him to D League and have him gain confidence and grow up . . . and turn our focus to being over .500 the rest of the way instead of getting the rookie floor time.

Very happy Brown gave CJ more burn tonight, especially considering Dion was having a pretty bad game. I would like to see CJ at 30 minutes a game switching between both wing spots.

Jack drives me crazy. For whatever offensive prowess he displayed, he gave it back on the defensive end. He can’t stay in front of anyone anymore. Denver’s guards are particularly quick, but Jack is generally only able to guard 2s and small 3s now using his strength. I would rather have Delly get his minutes and have Dion take even more of the PG duties in the second unit.

Tristan played a great game on the offensive end and was also pretty solid in his defensive rotations. Much improved. He still can fall asleep on boxing out, but it was a solid game.

Zeller continues to realize that he is more athletic than most people and that dunking is a good idea. I like it. He will still get shoved around at times, but he has been much much better. I love how he is sneaking on the baseline almost out of bounds, and making himself available for a dropoff.

We might as well give Clarks minutes to Bennett if he is going to continue this putrid streak. I don’t think Bennett would be any better, but Clark can’t hit anything right now. I know CJ was trying to get Clark going by passing up an open three to give Clark a corner 3 attempt, but CJ is about a billion times more likely to hit a shot right now.

Now that he is starting again, Andy is doing exactly what he was doing last year before he got hurt. He is absolutely our best player. Kyrie and Andy are finally getting back to using the PnR to get good 3 on 2 opportunities instead of only searching for pullup Js. Once Kyrie accepts the double team and Andy has the ball right above the foul line, the other team is toast because Deng actually understands when to cut. It makes me happy.

Off ball movement, in general, is SO much better with our starting lineup than it was before. CJ has always been decent, Deng is spectacular, Kyrie is working off Andy beautifully and Tristan is doing a good job rim running and than balancing the floor off the PnR. It’s about time.

We were absolutely miserable in that Sac game, but the other 4 games on the trip featured a lot of winning basketball. We continue to improve.

What came first – the Chicken McNuggett or the Egg McMuffin? Or, from a basketball sense – did the players get better and then wins came, or are the wins causing them to get better?

Andy – most underrated player in the league. So fun to watch. Not trading Andy (while EVERYBODY has been calling for it) has been the best move our front office has made over the last 3 years.

Tristan – Turning into a double-double machine. Turning into a consummate garbage man. Doesn’t need the ball . . . contributes while allowing the stars be stars. I NEVER saw a guy shoot so poorly with such poor form develop a touch that now seems to be money in the bank. Moving towards veteran status.

Deng – Perhaps all the ingredients were in this concoction called the Cavs, except one – the catalyst leader.

Kyrie – A very non-ball dominated 23 points tonight makes for a better team. He let the game come to him. Late in the game his passes out of double teams sealed the victory. Looks like a point guard when he trusts his teammates. Keep working hard on defense.

CJ – Confidence is everything. We’ve seen what you can do. Now do it. (Oh, and winning brings confidence.)

Zeller – I was Zeller’s #1 detractor. Now I can see him here for 10 years. I think he’ll end up being better than “Z” . . . unless we trade him.

Dion – Over time, should morph from a Vinnie Johnson type to Joe Dumars. Over time. That would give us an Isaiah Thomas / Joe Dumars combo. Looking for the 30-30 special 10 years from now that talks about the clashing styles of Dion & Kyrie ending as an NBA dynamic duo.

Delly – Be interesting to see what he turns into. Agree with the bloggers that say – when he’s not physically overmatched – he’s a difference maker.

Jack / Clark – Have parts in their games we may not like . . . but have skills as role players that will help the team win on various nights.

And the best story of all? A player that came to be known as AB “Barkley.”

@KJ You might want to read FTS today. Very positive on ALL the players. There are some other interesting perspectives on Dion you will NEVER see here. TT has a monster game and yet people complain about him. on here. WTH? Cavs have a GREAT win but some people are so OCD in complaining they must find fault somewhere and Dion is a favorite target. I swear if you gave a envelope with a million dollars in it to some of these people; they would complain the envelope should have been a neon pink one. Players giving and producing results is still not enough to please them. It’s maddening.

Agree on most of that. I was completely done with Zeller after watching him his rookie season. I just didn’t think he’d be able to put on any weight – he could still use another 30 lbs but just the “bulk” he has added will allow him to be a solid backup in this league for a long time. He’s one of “those guys” that you love to have backing up the 5 in the playoffs. He’s skilled and understands the nuances of the game that so many players will never understand.

You want Zeller to put on another 30? That would put him in Al Jefferson-Glen Davis-Nikola Pekovic Range. I only like it if he hits the latter.

Also I think Andy is the best passing center and if he could only hit the corner 3s Z used to… Lordy… I think with the way he plays and the way Brown plays him, he has 3 more solid seasons, 2 of which are improvements still, and the one is only a slight dropoff in athleticism and rebounding- IQ is still one of the tops for a center. And I think he has a chance for a triple double this season.

Sorry for doubling, but ET wouldn’t be Deng for us. He would be the bench SF. Maybe a bad role for him, but think about him and Dion on the 2nd unit. And it would allow Deng to play a little bit of 4 late in games if there’s a stretch 4 that Tristan can’t close out on.

Dion also does something that most young players don’t do. He usually picks the best shooter to close out on and not neccessarily the guy with the ball. I saw this 3 times last night and 2x the night before. Last night in one case he Tylawson had the ball wide open after drive and kick. Foye was in the high corner and Lawson had the ball on the wing. Dion made the perfect defensive play by denying penetration to Lawson and staying close to Foye. Yes Lawson canned the 3 but of the 3 possible shots Dion took away the best 2. That’s a play the spurs make. Usually the player will close out on Lawson leaving the on fire Foye open a much higher percentage shot.

I doubt they would do that trade as they don’t really need a PG, Jack has a long contract and and we can’t really trade our pick this year due to the Deng deal. I think any trade we make to a tanking team looking to offload players (like Philly) would have to include Bennett / Karasev as they are both young, could develop into NBA calibre players and won’t help them win games this year but can be given decent playing time to improve.

The only teams likely to give us something for Jack straight up would be a contender looking for a back up PG (like GS were, OKC if Westbrook couldn’t come back etc). The problem with dealing with a contender is they are very unlikely to give anything substantial in return.

The Cavs as a team this year have been outscored by 213 its. When Jaret Jack has been on the floor about 50% of the time. The team is -197. When he’s not on the floor the team is -14. This is is seemingly impossible because he didn’t play that much with Bynum (less than 20% of the time) but its true. If Brown had just given all his minutes to Miles and Delladova we’d be .500 right now.
He may be become more effective if he stays as a 12-15 minute a night guy who strictly plays the back up point but I’d still rather see Delladova who seems to somehow have a better sense of the game already than the 7 year veteran but Jack seems to be a Mike Brown guy so I doubt it.

It is crazy that Bennett is not in the D-League. If he isn’t going to get NBA minutes, which he shouldn’t since the Deng trade suggests we are trying to win games, then he needs to be playing somewhere. There must be something going on behind the scenes since I can’t see any possible benefit in having him sit on the bench.

Kyrie seemed a more willing and effective passer in this game than I’ve sen in a while.

Even when Deng shoots poorly, he does so many things right that you have to think he’ll help this team greatly. I hope the young players take note.

Dion played nice defense even though his offense was a mess. That’s good to see. A lot of guys don’t play good defense when they struggle at the other end. I hope he gets it together, soon. So many Cavs fans think he’s an all-star talent. I’d love to see it.

Realistically, I doubt the Cavs win more than 32 or 33 games this year. They have an absolutely brutal schedule in mid-March that could send them realing into the last quarter of the season. Will they make the playoffs with 33 wins? Possible, but doubtful.

Haha yeah. But I think it’s a sign that we are probably better than a lot of the teams around us as we are able to compete better with the better western conference foes. We should be able to play .500 ball the rest of the way as a minimum in my opinion.

@James – Why do you think the Cavs will play .500 ball the rest of the way? Is this the Deng effect? Improving play from Kyrie? Or, something else? Just curious.

For my part, I thought the Cavs would struggle to get 30 wins before the Deng trade. Now, I’m hoping for more consistent play from Kyrie and Dion. If they play much better, I think the Cavs can win 35-36 games and sneak into the playoffs. If not, we’re back in the lottery – probably with a 10-12 pick.

Also, thus far the Cavs have only beaten two teams with winning records. TWO. We beat the Clippers and the Nuggets (twice). Our 6-7 record against the West is deceptive – it includes only one win against a playoff bound team (Clippers).

@Scott. I agree with most of the positive comments on here by other people to be honest. I think we’ve played very well offensively since Bynum left and I agree that Andy is one of the most underrated players in the league. I think Dion, Kyrie and Tristan will continue improving defensively and that Zeller can be part of a decent big man rotation. Also the Deng effect – not just the fact that we have gone from a D-League calibre SF to an All Star calibre one but also the fact that he brings leadership to a very young group of players – is a major positive for us going forward.

If the right deal comes along we definitely have the assets to push through another trade for immediate improvement. Finally we are in a pathetically weak conference and although we have some tough games against Western opposition (as you say) we have also played 5 of our 7 games vs Indy and Miami. If we can win 3 / 4 games in our home stand that would be brilliant.

As I said 3 out of 5 ain’t bad for a young team. Next few games are winnable , they should take care of home court. One thing that puzzles me is that everybody want to trade Andy, may be that is why Ctown teams don’t win much, there is no loyalty + love at all.Go Cavs

Not sure if most people are eager to trade Andy as much as it’s just a possibility in the summer. If they need to create cap room next year, his non-guaranteed contract is probably the easiest on the team to deal. It’s also a compliment to the player he is that other teams are interested in him.

A worst case scenario of Andy starting at center for two more years and then deferring to Zeller, who should weigh 20 more pounds and have a real veteran’s feel for the game by then – is not such a bad scenario.

Of course, over that time we’ll be trying to improve there, but that’s not so bad.

While the article speaks highly of Barnes’ physical gifts and his performance in last year’s playoffs it includes these types of statements:

“The question remains, where does Harrison Barnes fit into the Warriors plans? With Andre Iguodala playing like a superstar, there is just no way that Barnes can crack the starting lineup over the next couple of seasons.”

“One would expect Barnes to have taken initiative on offense this season, but he has continued to disappear throughout the game. According to 22ndtimeout.com, Barnes touches the ball as much as a catch-and-shoot specialist like Kyle Korver. If Barnes was former Warriors guard Anthony Morrow that would be fine, but Barnes is expected to be the slashing wingman that gets buckets in droves. It seems as though Barnes is just not comfortable being the number one option on a team. Yes, Barnes is still a raw 21-year-old, but it doesn’t look like he will be changing his basketball IQ in time for the Warriors to use him in their championship run over the next couple of years.”

“The Warriors would be insane to give away Harrison Barnes, but they should entertain the notion of trading Barnes down the line. It would make sense for the Warriors to trade Barnes for a first round pick this off-season if they could pick a player that fits their system a little better.”

@Scott, I wonder if you read my post where I said the Cavs are 11-13 since Nov 30th? So, thinking a team that have won 3 of 5 on the road this past week might play .500 ball the rest of the way seems absolutely conservative to me.

@Underdog a classic example of making a fantasy team that doesn’t work in the real world. Something I think many, many bloggers and commenters of NBA are guilty of doing. Numbers in a vacuum, etc….

Underdog I think almost everyone predicted Detroit would struggle. Some people thought that Detroit would trade monroe for a shooter and would start winning but everyone knew that team would stink as currently constructed.

On the topic of us going .500 the rest of the way, well, there are two ways to look at it. There are only 4 teams over 500 in the East and 2 of those are only 1 game over 500 so it could be completely unrealistic to think the Cavs are going to be one of 3-5 teams in the East go to 500 or better. But wait dair’s more! It could also then be argued that the East is a bunch of ball suckers and it is completely possible to get on a run and beat the other sub 500 teams going full on tank mode and finish 500 or better.

A pairing of Irving and Love depends on if they are better scorers than they are bad defenders. That pairing needs a rim protecting center in the middle of which we currently don’t have and would not be able to get if we got Love this season. If you want Kevin Love you need a dream scenario where we get Kevin Love and Omer Asik at the same time. That means giving up Dion, Thompson, Bennett, Andy as many picks as we are allowed some other throw in guys and guarantee that they sign extensions. It’s a pipe dream, Love isn’t what this team needs. It needs crisp ball movement and effort on defense. We all know the talent is there already, it was at the start of the season, one imagines our record without Bynum. So we trade our whole team away and we have what four guys left and Jack? Do I get to play the sixth man? Does Kevin Jones come back?

@KJ – I can appreciate that you and most CtB posters are super optimistic about the Cavs. Yes the Cavs are 11-13 (including the Nov 30th win against the Bulls. They are also 4-10 over the last month (since a December 21st loss to those same Bulls).

The fact is that the Cavs will likely finish with a winning percentage at or below .420. Even if the Cavs play .500 basketball for the rest of the year (which is highly unlikely), they’ll finish with 36 wins. Better than last year, but hardly something to hang your hat on considering we play in a much weaker conference. And will probably end with 32-33 wins.

We are just not a very good team. We are capable of playing well, but we lack consistency. Yes, we’re one of the very youngest teams in the league. Kyrie is an all-star talent, maybe better. Deng and Varejao are solid vets. TT is a respectable power forward. CJ Miles is having a career year (though he’d never start for a good team). Unfortunately, we are not one of the most talented teams. Let’s hope our players improve and get lucky in the lottery.

And, if it’s true that all these GMs are trying to get Waiters from the Cavs, we ought to explore a trade. What can we really get for Waiters? My guess – not much. Maybe a late, 1-14 protected draft pick. We shouldn’t dump Waiters, but let’s not kid ourselves that we can get Love or some other star player for a package of Waiters, TT and a pick. We might get an old guy like Gasol for that, but not Love or any other young players. We can probably get Pau, Josh Smith or someone like that. Do we want someone like that? I think not.

And, let’s hope our management does something with Bennett. He needs to play – whether it’s for the Cavs or the D-league. Bennett needs 25-30 minutes a night. Period. Maybe he’s a total bust? He certainly isn’t going to improve riding the bench and accumulating DNP/CDs.

The Lineup: (Click for Author’s Archive)

Nate Smith is an Associate Editor. He grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and moved to NE Ohio in 2000. He adopted the Cavs in 2003 and graduated from Kent State in 2009 with a BA in English. He can be contacted at oldseaminer@gmail.com or @oldseaminer on Twitter.

Tom Pestak is an Associate Editor. He's from the west side of Cleveland and lives and (mostly) dies by the success and (mostly) failures of his beloved teams. You can watch his fanaticism during Cavs games @tompestak.

Robert Attenweiler is a Staff Writer. Originally from OH, he's long made his home in NYC where he writes plays and screenplays (www.disgracedproductions.com) some of which end up being about Ohio, basketball or both. He has also written for The Classical and the blog Raising the Cadavalier. You can contact him at rattenweiler@gmail.com or @cadavalier.

Benjamin Werth is a Staff Writer. He was born in Cleveland and raised in Mentor, OH. He now lives in Germany where he is an opera singer and actor. He can be reached at blfwerth@gmail.com.

Cory Hughey is a Staff Writer. He grew up in Youngstown, the Gary, Indiana of Ohio. He graduated from Youngstown State in 2008 with a worthless telecommunications degree. He can be contacted at theleperfromwatts@yahoo.com or @coryhughey on Twitter.

David Wood is our Links Editor. He is a 2012 Graduate of Syracuse University with an English degree who loves bikes, beer, basketball, writing, and Rimbaud. He can be reached on Twitter: @nothingwood.

Mallory Factor is the voice of Cavs: The Podcast. By day Mallory works in fundraising and by night he runs a music business company. To see his music endeavors check out www.fivetracks.com. Hit him up at Malloryfactorii@gmail.com or @Malfii.

John Krolik is the Editor Emeritus of Cavs: The Blog. At present, he is pursuing a law degree at Tulane University. You can contact him at johnkrolik@gmail.com or @johnkrolik.

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The Comment Monster

A monster lives in the comments section of Cavs: The Blog, and he likes to feed on comments. We have very little idea about when he will strike. What we do know is that comments with 2 or more links will get filed into the spam folder, as will comments with foul or discriminatory language. The comment monster also seems to enjoy extra-long comments, so if you have a long comment, you may want to press copy before submitting a long comment and break it into multiple pieces if the monster eats it. If you are having particular trouble with the monster, email one of us and we will talk to him for you.